The purpose of this paper is to briefly discuss a new regulation signed by Governor Deval Patrick, June 30th, 2014, and to analyze and touch upon the effect it will have on the quality of care provided. The introduction will mainly focus on briefly describing this new regulation and its components. Then it will continue on discussing what is the effect and concern for the population in regards specifically to the quality of care. Also, it will provide an example of a similar mandate already established in another state, research in other countries in reference to this topic and their findings. The analysis will conclude with the overall view on this mandate and what it means to the general public.
This new regulation addresses …show more content…
What the Health Policy Commission, Department of Public Health and some of the hospitals of the Commonwealth have come to conclude is the quality of care is better and there is a decrease in adverse events occurring with adequate staffing ratios pertaining to registered nurses. With this information, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts is looking to implement a similar mandate to the one established in California in 2011. The study which was done in California, by McHugh and colleagues, was mainly to see if the new mandate of nurse-to-patient ratios would reduce the skill level of the nursing workforce in hospitals. In researching this topic, a couple of other facts were discovered, such as with this the minimum ratios and increase in staffing, patients have had better health outcomes (McHugh at el., 2011). The article indicates that the reason for the better outcomes is because of the state mandated minimum patient ratios had led to the increase in registered nursing staff in this state. This legislation is also looking for ways of reporting each hospital 's ' methodology in determining acuity and outlined the requirements on the bill. One of the terms of this regulation is that these hospitals in the region …show more content…
Through a patient’s point of view, it seems that this is a wonderful implementation and realistically thinking about this under the registered nurses view it can be great for them as well. The only concerns that may and will most likely arise, is that all of our centers in the Commonwealth have their set amount of resources and staff available to them as well as not all centers are teaching hospitals, so added perks like a sitter, is a commodity, not all have. What can be perceived, like the study done in California, is the requirement of more registered nursing staff to fill the increase in demand for the population of ICU nurses. Of course just like anything new, until it is tested out, many can oppose to this regulation, but overall the quality of care is what really should be the focus and purpose of its implementation and potential
This new regulation addresses …show more content…
What the Health Policy Commission, Department of Public Health and some of the hospitals of the Commonwealth have come to conclude is the quality of care is better and there is a decrease in adverse events occurring with adequate staffing ratios pertaining to registered nurses. With this information, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts is looking to implement a similar mandate to the one established in California in 2011. The study which was done in California, by McHugh and colleagues, was mainly to see if the new mandate of nurse-to-patient ratios would reduce the skill level of the nursing workforce in hospitals. In researching this topic, a couple of other facts were discovered, such as with this the minimum ratios and increase in staffing, patients have had better health outcomes (McHugh at el., 2011). The article indicates that the reason for the better outcomes is because of the state mandated minimum patient ratios had led to the increase in registered nursing staff in this state. This legislation is also looking for ways of reporting each hospital 's ' methodology in determining acuity and outlined the requirements on the bill. One of the terms of this regulation is that these hospitals in the region …show more content…
Through a patient’s point of view, it seems that this is a wonderful implementation and realistically thinking about this under the registered nurses view it can be great for them as well. The only concerns that may and will most likely arise, is that all of our centers in the Commonwealth have their set amount of resources and staff available to them as well as not all centers are teaching hospitals, so added perks like a sitter, is a commodity, not all have. What can be perceived, like the study done in California, is the requirement of more registered nursing staff to fill the increase in demand for the population of ICU nurses. Of course just like anything new, until it is tested out, many can oppose to this regulation, but overall the quality of care is what really should be the focus and purpose of its implementation and potential